Union and separation in Edgar Allan Poe

Abstract

A computer method of concept analysis is applied to a sampling of twenty-one of Poe's tales and poetry collections written from age 18 up to his death at 40, on the hypothesis of a developmental time line in his writing. Concepts are pools of words of related meaning. A computer program compares each word of the texts to a concept dictionary, assigns up to five of 168 concepts to the word, and produces concept frequency profiles of the texts. Frequencies are converted to z scores and 138 selected concepts are intercorrelated and factor analysed. Texts are then associated with the concepts dominant in each factor. Clustering of early texts and late texts at opposite ends of one of the factors supports the idea of a time line. The death of Poe's brother in 1831 and of his wife in 1847 appear to be related to the time line. Poe's early work suggests that reunion with the loved one after death is possible. Later work, specifically Eureka, deals with reunion at a cosmic level in an ultimate nullity identified with God. Several critiques of Poe's writing are shown to be at fault for failing to take the time line into account. Some aspects of concept analysis are also reviewed